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<title>Tale of Two Families: The Bare Hunt by DrowsyAthena</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30131403">Tale of Two Families: The Bare Hunt</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrowsyAthena/pseuds/DrowsyAthena'>DrowsyAthena</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adventure, Clothed family naked family, Family Reunions, Gen, Hidden family treasure, Holiday get together, Legal Public Nudity, Mafia Family, Maybe they have Cannolis, NSFW Art, Non-Sexual, Nudism, Nudity, Public Nudity, Treasure Hunt, based off a prompt, casual nudity, mansion, nudist family, nudist siblings, secret rooms, wholesome nudity</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 16:32:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,326</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30131403</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrowsyAthena/pseuds/DrowsyAthena</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After ten years of separation, a family of nudists reunites with their textile mafia extended family in a mansion over the holidays. Awkwardness and even a treasure hunt come soon after...</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. A Nudist Family Walks into an Airport...</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He took off his shoes for the metal detector, and then placed it in the bin with his backpack and carry on.</p><p>Given that his shoes were the only things that he was wearing, he thought it was kind of silly that he still had to go through the metal detector thingy, but the rest of his family did, too, and they were just as naked as he was.</p><p>It didn’t stop it from being silly.</p><p>He walked into the thing... he could never remember the name of it, and raised his arms to his sides as the machine started looking for sharp objects or pieces of metal that were somehow obscured by his naked body.</p><p>He walked out and the security gestured at him to keep moving while at the same time raising his eyes to the ceiling. He didn’t look at a single member of his family. A bunch of people looked. A bunch stared, too, but only when they thought they could get away with it. Danny usually noticed. The rest of his family did, too. They didn’t mind it all that much, but Danny still thought it was kind of annoying that they couldn’t really go anywhere without being the center of attention.</p><p>Well, they could go places without being the center of attention, but that wasn’t an option that him, his sister, and his parents tended to take. Sometimes Danny thought that it might be nice to dress up when he headed out, just to avoid the stares and attention, not to mention the judgmental looks.</p><p>It was always tempting, but he thought about what his parents told him. They said that him and his sister had the freedom to be whoever they wanted to be, but that they had to never be ashamed of what they were. Maybe it was simplifying things a bit too much, but when he looked at the way the rest of his family wholeheartedly embraced nudism to the point where it sometimes became an inconvenience to the rest of their lives, he really respected that, and he had decided that he wanted to be proud of himself in that same way. Maybe it was a competitive feeling he had in him, the desire to be the last one naked, even after the rest of his family had put on clothes, that kept him going, but the honest truth was that he loved this lifestyle, and although nudist were only recently given freedom to practice publicly, and things were still being worked out, he loved the freedom that he was given. He would never give that up. He wasn’t going to.</p><p>Not even to go through airport security, on the way to their extended family’s home, across the country, for Christmas.</p><p>Being naked in an airport wasn’t the most nerve-wracking thing about this whole trip. The big thing was the fact that this was his mother’s family, and that he had barely ever even met them. Not in ten years, not since he was five.</p><p>His mother and them weren’t exactly on the best of terms... not to mention how they felt about his father... it wasn’t something that he was very much looking forward to.</p><p>Maybe that was why he was so especially annoyed at the avoidant eyes around him, today. It was the fact that he was already nervous to meet them... it was also the fact that a big part of the reason they didn’t like his dad was the fact that he was a nudist, and that now their daughter was a nudist, too... and they were going to this Christmas dinner completely naked... not even bringing a single outfit between the four of them.</p><p>This was going to be a disaster, and his mom seemed to invite the idea of it making her parents and her siblings mad</p><p>And that was another thing. The four of them... they were going to be vastly outnumbered by the rest of the family... it might not really be too much different in terms of numbers as when they go out shopping, but given the awkwardness the situation already had going for it, it was probably going to be pretty isolating. It wouldn’t be humiliating for him, he wouldn’t let it be, but... it was going to be a struggle, and one that he wasn’t looking forward to facing.</p><p>And even with everything that was already mentioned, none of it was even the biggest issue... Danny was worried about a lot more than just being naked in a room full of judge textiles...</p><p>“You’re looking at nothing, again,” said Danny’s sister as she tapped him on the shoulder to snap him out of his worries. “You’re thinking too much.”</p><p>“You don’t think enough,” Danny said, pushing her on the shoulder away from him.</p><p>Brooklyn was younger than him by two years, and was in general even less concerned about being naked in public, too. In fact, she probably thought being forced to put on the sneakers she was still holding in her hands was overdressing to her standards, but she was a weirdo like that. When it passed that nudists were allowed to practice openly, Danny was slightly nervous for himself and for how he would be seen at school, where Brooklyn jumped into it whole-heartedly and enthusiastically. She had never been so happy.</p><p>Even now, even being fairly used to it, she looked noticeably happy and upbeat about being able to be naked and nobody being able to do anything about it. Besides the freedom and the general love of the lifestyle, the bit that she loved most about nudism was that she was allowed to rub in in the face of the textiles. The ones who didn’t like her presence, at least. Most of her friends were textiles and they were all pretty cool with each other.</p><p>“Come on, be happy,” Brooklyn said, swinging her arms by her side as she walked. “We’re going to a new place. A <em>mansion</em>. And we’re going to sleep in a <em>mansion</em>. A <em>mansion</em> Danny, a <em>mansion</em>. Have you ever been in a <em>mansion</em> before?”</p><p>“You know I haven’t. And stop saying it like that.”</p><p>“What? And like what?”</p><p>“<em>Mansion</em>.”</p><p>“I don’t sound like that,” Brooklyn said.</p><p>“In my mind you do,” Danny said, grabbing his carry on and walking away, moving faster, away from his sister, but she quickly caught up to him.</p><p>“You’re going to have fun, but not if you go in with such a bad attitude.”</p><p>“It’s not a bad attitude. I’m just...”</p><p>“Nervous?”</p><p>Danny shook his head. “No. Not nervous either.”</p><p>“Then what is it?” Brooklyn hummed. “It has to be something. I’m pretty sure it’s nerves.”</p><p>Danny couldn’t wait until they were on the plane and he could just put on his headphones and ignore her. They were, unfortunately, set to sit adjacent to each other, but Brooklyn would probably be asleep soon, by then. He just had to wait her out.</p><p>“Mom’s not nervous, you know,” Brooklyn said.</p><p>“We don’t know that she’s not.”</p><p>“She’s not,” Brooklyn said, “I can tell.”</p><p>“Whatever,” Danny said. He saw his parents up ahead, trusting their kids to be able to either catch up to them, or to find the nudists in a crowded airport. They were always the most conspicuous ones in any given area. Danny could see them turning into the seating area and resting. Talking.</p><p>They... really didn’t seem nervous. Maybe it was just Danny overthinking things...</p><p>Then he remembered what it was that he was thinking about, and he decided that it was more a case that they weren’t thinking enough about what was happening than anything involving himself.</p><p>His family was weird. He was weird, too, he guessed, but his family was just... weird. In a different way... or just an exaggerated way.</p><p>This was going to be... a trip.</p><p>
  <em>Smack!</em>
</p><p>“Come on,” Brooklyn said after smacking Danny’s butt cheek. “I want to sit down, let’s move.” She sprinted forward.</p><p>Danny clenched his jaw, annoyed that Brooklyn smacked him like that in public. He didn’t want to give in and chase after her... but he couldn’t help himself, so he ran. “Get back here, idiot!” and just like that he didn’t give a single care about how the textiles around him were looking at him.</p><p>He just wanted to catch his sister and push her onto the ground.</p><p>His parents were going to stop him before he got that far, but he still had goals.</p>
<hr/><p>“Are they going to be naked?”</p><p>“I don’t know, Penelope. Maybe.”</p><p>Penelope rolled her eyes. She didn’t like that answer. “I want a yes or no answer. Are they going to be naked, and if they are, are you going to do something about it?”</p><p>Penelope’s mother looked up from the book on the table and to her daughter. “I don’t know. And if they are, there isn’t much I can do. Their lifestyle is protected against outside interference.”</p><p>“It’s our house.”</p><p>“It’s your grandparents’ house,” Penelope’s mother said. “And after that, it’s mine and your uncles. Even Mara’s, before you,” she said, referring to her sister, the nudist that broke away from the rest of the family. “And after that, it’s yours, along with your cousins. Even the naked ones.”</p><p>“They better not be naked,” Penelope said.</p><p>“And if they are, what are you going to do about it?” Her mother asked.</p><p>Penelope pouted. “I don’t want them in this mansion if they’re going to sit all over it with their naked bottoms.”</p><p>“You might have to deal.”</p><p>“Why?” Penelope asked.</p><p>“Because grandma and grandpa decided that they wanted to bury the hatchet with Mara and bring her back into the family. In spite of her... many faults.”</p><p>“I’m not sitting where they’re sitting.”</p><p>“You don’t have to,” her mother said. “But just try to be polite to them. Even if they’re naked.”</p><p>“I would prefer that they were polite enough to wear clothes in the presence of normal people,” Penelope said.</p><p>“We all would, but if they don’t, they don’t, and there’s not a lot we can do about it.”</p><p>“We could—”</p><p>“There is not a lot we can do about it,” her mother repeated, not even willing to hear Penelope’s suggestion.</p><p>Penelope pouted and started twisting her finger in her curly blonde hair.</p><p>“Maybe you should go to your room and prepare yourself.”</p><p>“They won’t end up living here, will they?”</p><p>“I don’t know.”</p><p>“If they do, they better—”</p><p>“Wear clothes. I get it,” her mother said.</p><p>Penelope bit her lip. “Fine. I understand when I am not wanted.” She turned and marched out of the dining room, into the study where her grandparents were on the couch, side by side, reading the same book. Penelope knew that, while they weren’t exactly happy about their daughter’s nudism, they were still happy enough to have her coming back to them that they were absolutely useless to complain to. She moved past them and ignored them, into the halls and then into her own room where she sat at her vanity and looked at herself in the mirror. She could see the annoyance in her own face. She wanted to calm down, but she also felt rather justified in her feelings.</p><p>She didn’t want any strange nudists who left the family on their own to just come in and take back the pieces of it that they left on the floor, on their own. It wasn’t fair.</p><p>She sighed.</p><p>*Be polite* her mother told her. She shook her head. She would... she would try, at least... but she wasn’t going to like any of it.</p><p>She crossed her arms and looked away, to the door cracked open. The room across from her would be theirs for the weekend. For much longer, if things went poorly for her.</p><p>This had better not end like that... she wouldn’t bear it...</p><p>This family belonged to her. This manor was going to be <em>hers</em>.</p>
<hr/><p>“Do you think they’re the violent kind of mafia,” Brooklyn whispered.</p><p>“I don’t want to talk about this,” Danny said.</p><p>“Do you think they’re the kind that smuggles all the drugs and stuff?” Brooklyn asked anyways. “Do they blow up peoples’ cars when they don’t like them?”</p><p>“Please don’t talk about explosives while we’re on a plane,” Danny said.</p><p>“They know we’re not a threat. I mean, where would we even keep the explosives? Our butts?”</p><p>“If we get tackled by an air marshal I’ll kill you,” Danny said.</p><p>“Do you think grandpa ever shot anybody? Like in the head? And then throw him off the docks?”</p><p>“I don’t know. Maybe.” Danny said. The thing was that he might have. It was one of the many thoughts on this whole situation that stuck with him, no matter how many times his mother told him that he would be totally safe, and that his grandpa “wasn’t like that anymore.”</p><p>It was the “anymore” that really bothered him.</p><p>“Do you think they like Godfather?” Brooklyn asked.</p><p>“I’m done talking. I’m going to listen to music,” Danny said, reaching into his backpack and pulling out his phone and headphones.</p><p>“You’re no fun,” Brooklyn said. “I’m just trying to make conversation!”</p><p>“I don’t want to talk about any of this,” Danny said.</p><p>“Are you scared of them?”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“Are you sure?”</p><p>Danny raised his phone and presented it to her, making a big show of when he pressed the play button, and how high he turned up the volume. Brooklyn stuck her tongue out at him and then started to browse the movies on the screen in front of her.</p><p>Maybe he was a bit afraid, though. He had no idea what to expect from them, if they were violent or conniving or if the police would burst in at any moment. There were a lot of unknowns... he didn’t mind most unknowns, but these were... something else.</p><p>He looked past Brooklyn and towards the window. He couldn’t really see anything, but it was something else to focus on as the music played.</p><p>He just had to get there, and land, and meet his grandparents and aunts and uncles and all of his cousins... and then leave, back to the comfort of his own home, where whatever crime element there was, he wasn’t related to them.</p><p>He was something like a mafia prince... if that was a real thing. Brooklyn liked to call herself a princess, ever since she found out. She took the news a lot better than she probably should have, sometimes joking about having some of the people she didn’t like get “whacked” by her grandparents...</p><p>Poor taste, but even their mother laughed. She was casual about it, too. She knew who she was, and she didn’t appear to have any shame for it. Dad was a bit different, but he still didn’t seem to carry the weight of someone who separated a mafia princess from the rest of her family the way that other people, would. He was definitely not outwardly afraid. He didn’t make it a secret that he wasn’t actually too fond of them, but it didn’t seem like he was afraid they were out to get him. He wasn’t afraid of getting “whacked.”</p><p>Danny knew he shouldn’t be, either... maybe he just watched too many mafia movies... or too much news.</p><p>He sighed, looking to the right, where across aisle his parents were both watching ‘How I Met Your Mother,’ hands held, fingers interlocked together while they laughed at all the same corny jokes.</p><p>They had it nice.</p><p>If they weren’t worried... maybe Danny shouldn’t be, either.</p><p>He tried to let his shoulders slump. Relax with the music. It wasn’t all that long of a flight, and then there would be a driver waiting for them. A limousine, his mother told them.</p><p>Brooklyn was excited. She’d never been in a limo, before. She asked if it was bulletproof.</p><p>It, apparently, might be. Maybe it was supposed to be a comfort, but it didn’t really feel that way. What did they need a bulletproof limo for? Did they have enemies? Of course they had enemies... there was no way that they were living that kind of mafioso life without making enemies...</p><p>Did they already know about them? The nudists in their enemy’s family?</p><p>They’d probably have made themselves known by now if they did...</p><p>Unless they were playing some kind of long game... waiting or when they were closer... like now.</p><p>He started drumming his fingers on top of his thigh nervously. This flight was going to feel twice as long as it really wasn’t if he couldn’t just force his mind to shut up.</p><p>Who knows, it might even be nice. They might be nice. This whole thing might just be the best holiday dinner with extended family ever... though he did much prefer the idea of another Christmas with his other grandparents and cousins, who were all fellow nudists...</p><p>At least he had thanksgiving with them.</p><p>Brooklyn tapped Danny’s shoulder.</p><p>Reluctantly, Danny paused his music and removed an earphone. “Yeah?”</p><p>“Do you think they’ll serve cannolis?”</p><p>“Cannolis?”</p><p>“You know, the crispy pastry with the cream in the middle. Do you think they’ll serve that?”</p><p>“I’m not sure if that’s a Christmas thing.”</p><p>“It might be a mafia thing,” Brooklyn said. “I think they’re like... <em>very</em> Italian. They might have cannolis.”</p><p>“Okay, maybe they have cannolis, whatever.”</p><p>“I hope so! I wonder what a real Italian cannoli tastes like... a real mafia cannoli...”</p><p>“Those two things don’t mean the same thing,” Danny said.</p><p>“Still, they both might mean some really good cannolis.”</p><p>“... I’m going to listen to music again,” Danny said.</p><p>“Okay. I’ll get your attention again when I have something lose to say,” Brooklyn said.</p><p>“Please don’t.”</p><p>“What? I can’t hear you, you’re listening to music,” Brooklyn said, cupping her ear and smiling mischievously.</p><p>“I’m not... that’s not... whatever.” Danny pushed play again and the music was back on.</p><p>He just had to wait it out. He had to wait this all out...</p><p>And maybe they’ll even have cannolis...</p><p>
  
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Kisekae art by OliviaThinksSheCanWrite</p><p>Special thanks to Tom_Ato for the prompt and the title! This was a fun write and it obviously grew beyond the single chapter I was meant to write. Hope you enjoy it as it goes on!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Things Are Awkward</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The plane had landed, they grabbed our suitcases, and they waited in line through customs for a very, very long time. Danny was not an extremely impatient person, but he was beginning to get a bit antsy, after the few hours in the plane, the whole family just really wanted to be literally anywhere other than a slowly moving airport custom line. Danny was tapping his feet on the floor, his father was yawning and trying not to slump forward, his mother kept bring up and looking at her phone, even though the service here wasn’t all the great, and the most that she could see was the time, and Brooklyn...</p><p>Well, Brooklyn was very much an extremely impatient person, and she was intent on making that everybody else’s problem.</p><p>“I can’t believe that this is taking so freaking long,” she said, maybe a bit more loudly than she should hav said it.</p><p>“Hush, Brook,” said her dad.</p><p>“This should be faster. I simply refuse to believe that people have been flying in the sky for as long as we have, and walking through airports for most of that time, only to have lines move This Freaking Slowly, still.”</p><p>“Shut up, Brooklyn,” Danny said.</p><p>“Danny, don’t tell your sister to shut up,” their Mom said. “Say you’re sorry.”</p><p>Brooklyn stuck her tongue out at Danny and then said, in a snotty voice, “Yeah, bro, say you’re sorry.”</p><p>“Brookie, honey, don’t be a brat,” their Mom said, and Danny had to try not to laugh at the expense of her sister, because the second that he laughed was the second that he lost the lead over her sister.</p><p>Just like that, Danny didn’t have to apologize to her, which was fine by his book.</p><p>The moved. Incrementally. A few steps. As usual, the textiles gave the units family a little bit of extra breathing room, which was appreciated, for sure, but also just naturally annoying. Danny wished he could skip ahead to the part where society would see them as normal, rather than just people who were allowed to be naked outdoors. It was a recent development, and people were still getting used to it, and Danny didn’t really feel up to trudging through that entire process of acclimating.</p><p>If only the textiles could acclimate to the nudists’ presence with the same speed that nudists got used to walking around in public in just their skin, and maybe a fanny pack, which was almost immediately, and with great excitement.</p><p>Danny also kind of wished that his family didn’t always seem to be the only nudists in the area. It was probably just bad luck, because he was sure that others who shared their lifestyle ran into each other since the law was passed that they could practice in public, but it never seemed to happen to his family. They found each other at the resorts and the recreation centers, but out in the open? Nope. Nothing but textiles surrounding them for as far as the eyes could see.</p><p>And it’s not like other nudists are really all that tough to spot in the crowd. Everyone always seemed to be able to find them wherever they were.</p><p>In that middle of Danny being irritated by this, the line moved another few steps. This was going to take forever, he thought.</p><p>“This is going to take FOREVER,” Brooklyn groaned.</p><p>Danny sighed. He hated to agree with her.</p><hr/><p>Eventually they made it out the other side of customs, and just like that, it was like they were breathing fresh air again. All the colors in the world felt less muted, and that musty airport smell was almost tolerable, now.</p><p>They looked for and found a well dressed man holding a sign with their family’s name on it. He gave them a resigned look and led them outside, into the open air which was, admittedly chilly, but they were all used to that by now. They could deal.</p><p>They were led into the limo, where they were given towels, and they had set those towels onto the smooth leather seats.</p><p>“This is nice, isn’t it?” Their Dad said, while their Mom looked out at the window. She looked used to sitting here, in a limo. None of this was new to her, like it was new to everyone else.</p><p>“I guess,” Danny said, still kinda really very nervous to meet his mom’s side of the family.</p><p>“This is so cool,” Brooklyn said.</p><p>“Just behave and relax for a bit,” their mother said. “It’s only an hour’s drive. We’ll be there before we know it.”</p><p>Danny didn’t really know what he felt about that. He still had nerves, and a lot of them, but the closer he got, the more he accepted what was happening, and the more that he was willing to just kind of... go with the flow.</p><p>This could still be a fun trip.</p><p>This was still a mansion, after all. His first. If he tried hard enough, he could probably ignore the fact that it was also a mafia mansion, bought, built, and kept by mafia money, and that that could mean a whole lot that he didn’t want to dwell on for a very long time, or at all, even.</p><p>Oh well, he thought about it too much, again, back to being nervous.</p><p>“Hey mister,” Brooklyn called to the driver, in spite of what her mother just said to them, “are these windows bulletproof?”</p><hr/><p>They were almost here. Her cousins... Them... those Nudists...</p><p>There was a weird feeling of anticipation in Penelope’s stomach, knowing that she was about to be meeting her first nudists, and really, seeing the first naked bodies not belonging to her immediate family, and for very brief moments in time.</p><p>She wasn’t excited, though. No, but this was still unusual, and it was coming at her, whether she wanted it to or not.</p><p>She looked out the window, and sure enough, there was the limousine, driving up the hill, up to the front of her mansion.</p><p>She was going to need that limo scrubbed after they got done using it. Every inch of it, before she would be willing to set foot into it again.</p><p>“Penelope, they’re here!” Her mother called. “Come down and greet them.”</p><p>Penelope sighed and turned, walking slowly to the door of her expansive bedroom before she heard her mother call out one more time, “Put on a good face.”</p><p>She sneered. She didn’t think that she had any of those, right now.</p><hr/><p>She was outside now, as the nudists got out of the car. As their bodies were exposed to her eyes.</p><p>She hated how easily she blushed, but she had an excuse, this time. They were all naked, shamelessly undressed and in the nude here in the open air, under the sun. She was scandalized, and she couldn’t pretend that she wasn’t. She didn’t want to. She wanted them to know exactly what she felt about their nudity, but her mother told her to reign it in and try to be polite, so she would at least try.</p><p>Her mother did not tell her that she had to try very hard.</p><p>The families finally meeting was very... very awkward. Penelope was glad that she had never been close to any of them, so she wasn’t expected to... make contact with any of them. Her grandparents both fumbled on whether or not to shake hands with or to hug the nudists, eventually settling on a very awkward, arched hug where they hips were pulled back to avoid any touching. If Penelope felt bad for the nudists at all, it was because of that awkward hug. Something about seeing how unnatural contact with the grandkids and their grandparents, or with their own daughter, Mara. They hugged Penelope, sometimes, and it wasn’t usually that awkward. Her grandparents weren’t the most affectionate people in the world, but still... this was actually kind of sad.</p><p>Still, they should have gotten dressed if they were going to come here, on her property. It’s not as if that wasn’t an option. It would be extremely easy, and it would stop just so much of this terrible awkwardness.</p><p>They only shook hands with the Dad, which seemed fair.</p><p>Penelope’s mother tried her best to not seem so stilted while she hugged her sister. Mara hugged her back, enthusiastically, and then Penelope’s mother shook hands with the two children, smiling her practiced smile.</p><p>She gave a look to their father, which was again fair, Penelope thought. She knew that he wasn’t particularly liked in this family, and the reason seemed pretty obvious.</p><p>All that Penelope had to do was wave at her naked cousins once her name was brought up.</p><p>The both waved back, the boy, named Danny, was reserved, and the girl, Brooklyn, gave a wide, animated wave, saying “Hiya!”</p><p>Penelope blinked.</p><p>Good first introductions, time to move on.</p><p>“Penelope,” her mother said. “Why don’t you show your cousins to their room.”</p><p>Penelope blinked, looking over to her mother, then to her naked cousins. In her mother’s eyes, she saw her reminding Penelope that she was supposed to be nice, or at least pretend to be nice.</p><p>She swallowed, and she said, “Sure... this way,” and she turned away, not even looking back to make sure that her cousins were following behind her. She heard footsteps, though, and she assumed that they belonged to the energetic girl.</p><p>She was going to be a handful. Annoying, too, probably.</p><p>Her mother’s voice rang in her head.</p><hr/><p>Penelope didn’t seem to like them all that much. She turned rigid the second that her mother had asked her to take Danny and Brooklyn to their room. She looked quietly at her mother like she was holding back something, but still, she went along with them, leading them almost wordlessly through the massive mansion as Brooklyn ooh’d and ahh’d at every interesting sight that they came across, through the halls, and to their room, which was apparently across from Penelope’s.</p><p>“There you go,” she said, tersely, and it was extremely obvious that she was avoiding looking at them anywhere other than in the eyes, though she settled on looking past them, or to their sides, most of the time.</p><p>“Thank you,” Danny said quietly.</p><p>“You can unpack in there,” Brooklyn said.</p><p>“You don’t want to talk?” Brooklyn asked. Danny cringed, and Penelope stared at her young cousin for a while, thinking of what to say.</p><p>She didn’t want to be here, with them. It was obvious to Danny, but Brooklyn tended to see as little about a person where it conflicted with her own life as possible. She probably didn’t notice any of the awkwardness, and if she did, she was more interested in the lavish surroundings than she was put down by the thick awkwardness surrounding them ever since they got out of that limo.</p><p>Danny had to cringe at the silence. He didn’t cringe, but he really really wanted to.</p><p>“I’m...” Penelope started, and it sounded like she was about to say that she was busy. She corrected herself, and then she said, “about what?”</p><p>Brooklyn shrugged. “About anything. You’re our cousin. I want to know a bit more about you.”</p><p>Penelope fixed her hair behind her ear. “I... don’t know where to start,” she said.</p><p>“Well, what do you like doing?” Brooklyn asked, sitting down on the side of the bed and kicking both her feet back and forth.</p><p>A little bit more awkward silence, and then Penelope said, “I like... to ride horses...”</p><p>“Ohh! I’ve always wanted to ride horses! Do you think I can be taught while we’re here?”</p><p>“I... don’t know if we have the time...”</p><p>“I’ll see about it,” Brooklyn said, like she could somehow look for and find the time that she needed just so that she could live out her fantasies of being on horseback with the wind whipping through her hair.</p><p>Penelope pursed her lips. “I think my mother needs me right now,” she said.</p><p>“Oh... ok,” Brooklyn said. “It was really nice meeting you, Penelope!”</p><p>Penelope nodded and said, “Okay,” before she turned, and very distinctly, she shut the door to the room behind her.</p><p>“Well... she seems nice,” Brooklyn said.</p><p>“I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not,” Danny said. “That was the most awkward few minutes of my entire life, and I went to school naked.”</p><p>“They just have to get used to us. Give it time,” Brooklyn said.</p><p>“Do you really think that they’ll get used to us?” Danny asked.</p><p>Brooklyn nodded. “Of course!”</p><p>Danny thought about it for a bit, and then he remembered who it was that he was talking to. “What do you know,” he said, walking over to his own bed, setting his suitcase and backpack on top of it, starting to unpack.</p><p>“Don’t focus too much on the awkwardness. We’re in a mafia mansion and I’m going to learn how to ride a horse!”</p><p>“I don’t think you’re listening to anyone,” Danny muttered. “Or to yourself when you speak. Anyways, unpack so we can get back to Mom and Dad.”</p><p>“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I’m telling you, though, I think this is going to be a really great time! You just have to let it. Oh!, and can you imagine if they make cannolis?”</p><p>“Shut up about the cannolis already,” Danny said, but he had to turn away, because he was actually smiling at how his sister was always so... energetically stupid.</p><p>Maybe she was right... in a small way.</p><p>He just had let it be a good time.</p><p>He kept unpacking. He wanted to draw this out for as long as he could.</p><p>He just had to try to make the most of this...</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Finally wrote chapter 2 lol</p><p>I have decided that instead of predicting how long this story should be and trying to aim at that number of chapters, I’m just going to vibe with the story until I feel like it’s over. That way it will be easier to release chapters more quickly!</p><p>I’ll try to get the next chapter done pretty soon so we can dive a bit deeper into this family and their awkward reunion!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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